And Survey Says… Why the Census matters, a LOT

October 14, 2020

The US counts its population once every 10 years, sends out a mailer and all you have to do is mail it back. Easy right? Yes, but people just aren’t doing it. Living in an ongoing pandemic, unbreathable air, and “murder” hornets we’re basically in a millennial’s apocalyptic nightmare. I mean we barely escaped a potential mummy curse (someone better have 1999 Brendan Fraser on speed dial). With everything going on with the world right now, worrying about the census is the absolute last thing on people’s minds. But hear me out – and this may seem like a huge stretch – filling out the census could make it better. I mean it takes ten minutes to do (nice time for a break), you can do it online now (YAY for technology!), and your input can help determine where 1.5 trillion dollars (yes, that’s Trillion, with a ‘t’) of federal funding is spent over the next ten years.

So, you know, kind of a big deal, but what’s going on? The 2020 Census was originally supposed to end on October 31st, but the current administration moved up the date to September 30th, which then got extended back to its original date of October 31st, and is now October 15th (at the time of this posting). NPR’s Consider This podcast looks into why this census could be the least accurate ever and how multiple factors (the current administration’s priorities, pandemic, etc.) play into this. With many states now scrambling to promote the census – *cough*looking at you Texas*cough* – we see what’s at stake: money, and government representation.

Now what does this all mean? According to The Urban Institute “the 2020 Census faces unprecedented challenges and threats to its accuracy. Demographic changes over the past decade will make the population harder to count. And underfunding, under tested process changes, and the last-minute introduction of a citizenship question could result in serious miscounts, potentially diminishing communities’ rightful political voice and share of funding.” Looking at the 2020 Census: Who’s At Risk of Being Miscounted prediction map from the Urban Institute show’s which communities are most at risk of not being accurately represented in the census count. The Census 2020 Hard to Count Map currently shows which states have responded and at what rates.

We could continue to talk about what COULD happen, but what were the results of the 2010 census? One result from the 2010 census was that Washington State gained ONE seat in the US House of Representatives. But the main purpose of the Decennial Census “is to allocate the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, but it also gives communities the most complete and accurate picture of their population and its basic characteristics.”